This invention concerns a device for applying a liquid, paste or gel product to the skin, with a reservoir for the product, an abutment connected to the reservoir by at least one feed channel, and an applicator element that is provided with a plurality of passages for the product and has an outside surface which forms the applicator surface.
An applicator device of the type defined in the preamble is known, for example, from German Patent No. 3,430,582 A1. With the known applicator device, the surface of the abutment facing the applicator element is convex. Therefore, the applicator element, which is provided in the form of a cover, is adjacent to the abutment in such a way that product supplied to the abutment through the feed channel goes directly from the feed channel into the applicator element and from there to its outside surface.
Since the product goes directly from the feed channel into the applicator element, it preferably reaches the outside surface of the applicator element in the area of the mouth of the feed channel. However, areas of the applicator element that are not in the immediate proximity of the mouth of the feed channel are supplied with an inadequate amount of product or none at all. As an expedient, it is proposed that the product be applied to the applicator element over an area using a small spatula.
French Patent No. 925,899 A describes an applicator device with an applicator surface which may be formed by a fine-meshed element.
German Patent No. 19,627,606 A1 describes an applicator device for semisolid powdered materials. Here again, a surface-permeable cover which is in direct contact with the material serves as the applicator surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,442,503 A describes an applicator device for lipstick, where delivery channels open directly into an applicator surface. Here again, there is the problem of lipstick accumulating in the area of the mouth of the delivery channels.
The object of this invention is to improve upon an applicator device of the type defined in the preamble so that there will be a uniform distribution of the product without having to use a spatula or the like.